Some might call these tricks dirty, while others just call them business tactics, depending on which side of the aisle you are on! Nevertheless, the best way for a customer to avoid falling for one of these tricks is to simply be aware of them. We are now going to aid that by mentioning the most widely used tactics that supermarkets employ to hike up your expenditure per visit.
The Healthy Fruits and Vegetables Trick
Healthy fruits and vegetables are displayed upfront to create an impression, but the grocery workers are often instructed to fill the customers’ bags with less healthy-looking counterparts. It doesn’t always happen, but there’s always a chance it will. Pick and shop your own fruits and veggies to avoid this.
Nonessentials Over Essentials
This one is a particularly common experience we have all been through during our visits to the supermarket. Somehow, essential items seem hidden from sight, behind a whole range of non-essential, or money wasters. We covet what we see, so the idea is to expose as much of their nonessential products to the customers as possible.
The Faux Buy-One-Get-One-Free Deal
Sometimes, you can actually find some awesome buy-one-get-one-free deals at a local or online pound store, but in general supermarkets, that offer is more often than not a bogus deal. It has often been found that buying just two of the bundled items separately costs less money than paying for the buy-one-get-one-free deal!
What happens is that they will often put two of the same or similar items in a bundle because those two are quite close to reaching their expiry date. However, the supermarket will still be charging you full price for one of the items, making you feel like you are getting the other one for free. The truth is, if you wish to make the best of clearance sales, you need to visit a pound shop online like Low Price Foods. Some of the latest clearance bargains they have at the online pound shop will instantly help a customer realise just how much more they were paying for those “deals” at the local supermarket.
The Non-Existent Bulk Discount
If you buy more, you pay less, right? Not exactly, if your local supermarket can trick you about it! More often than not, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- Are you really saving more by buying in bulk?
- Does the bulk price add up to be significantly less than what each of those items would cost to buy individually?
- Do you really have a need for buying the specific grocery items in bulk?
- Will you be able to use/eat the bulk purchase before it spoils, without putting in additional effort to do so?
- Unless all the answers are “yes,” you are probably going to end up wasting money on non-existent bulk discounts.
The bottom line is that there’s a lot of psychological tricking going on in supermarkets, and if you are not careful, you will come to regret it later. Always check and double-check their offers, discounts, and the like, before confirming any purchase.
*This is a collaborative post.
